The Kyudo Club
by The War Wizard
Summary: The kyudo club of Fujimi Academy are the national Japanese archery champions. Let's see how well they take on the end of the world. Almost all original cast.
1. Chapter 1

Tokonosu City, home of the Ultra Nationalist Japanese party, 3rd rank elementary education in Japan, first fully off shore air port in Japan and the famous Fujimi Academy. What made Fujimi Academy famous wasn't the educational rating, or the lowest teen pregnancy levels in Japan, or the low violence rates. No, what made Fujimi High famous was its clubs. The school had won the national championships for 2 years running in kendo, archery, math and karate.

Fujimi Academy had started their winning streak when multiple things where done. It started when sophomore Busujima Saeko challenged the former captain of the kendo club for the position. After a resounding defeat, the former captain, a senior, dropped out of the club. After word of the coup of the kendo club spread through the academy, the archery club had a coup led by a freshman student named Kiyoshi Mamoru.

Mamoru challenged the former captain, an arrogant grandson to one of the cities councilmen and a junior, with multiple teachers watching. In front of the whole school, a freshman split the arrow of a junior before out scoring the arrogant former captain. Mamoru and Busujima then lead their clubs to victory in the nationals. The archery and kendo clubs received brand new equipment the following year.

After the victories of the archery and kendo clubs, the math and karate clubs followed their lead and won their own national tournaments. Other clubs in the school came in anywhere from 9th to 3rd places. After winning and scoring highly in all fields, they received nation media coverage. The next year, after pulling off victories again, they would have gotten more media coverage if the event hadn't happened.

Kiyoshi Mamoru, a 5'8'' 16 year old boy with a slender body build, brown hair and eyes and an aristocratically handsome face, was overseeing his club and team practicing on the field. Each member of the club currently on the field, 10 of the 20 club members, were armed with their yumi bows and yazutsu quivers that were kept stocked with a full 20 arrows. To make sure none of the members became uncomfortable in their equipment, Mamoru required all member to wear their equipment at all times on the field including the 3 fingered glove called a mitsugake. He preferred his club members to always wear hakama, kimono and tabi when on the field, but never enforced that on anyone but himself. Of the 10 members of his club on the field, he was the only one in club competition wear. He could hear the academies P.E. classes going on in the background as he directed his club members to draw and aim.

As the leader of the club, Mamoru loved when his team hit every shot. As he called fire, 5 of his club loosed their arrow. 4 hit less than an inch from the bulls eye, with the last hitting a bulls eye.

"Good job team!" They all cracked smiles, "Retrieval!"

The 5 currently charged with returning the fired arrows back to those currently training, ran out to each target before pulling them out and putting them in to an empty yazutsu before they rushed back out of the way.

"Alright team, we're taking a twenty minute break. If I see anyone with a cigarette, I will shoot it out of your mouth. And you know I can do it." His threat delivered with a smirk, Mamoru walked over to his girlfriend Niki Toshimi and sat down beside her. Her all but sister Ichijou Misuzu smirked as he sat down behind his girlfriend and started to play with her pony-tail with a smile.

"Babe, stop that," the humor in her voice was plain as day.

Misuzu laughed, "Leave him alone Toshimi. I think it's really cute." She smiled at the 2 of them, as Toshimi leaned in to her boyfriend, her smile growing as his arms came around her stomach and pulled her against his chest. She handed him a bottle of water over her shoulder, as she looked back to her friend.

"When are you going to look for a boyfriend Misuzu?" The question caused her friend to look over at 1 of the 4 kendo club members practicing on the field. "I'm just waiting for the right time to ask vice-captain Iwao Katsumi. He's so hot!" She squealed.

"I'd think a good personality would be a better quality," Mamoru stated.

Misuzu went to speak, but a scream interrupted her.

"KYOKO-SENSEI!"

Everybody snapped toward the scream, to see a sight nobody wanted to see. Kyoko Hayashi, Ping-Pong club adviser and teacher of history, stumbled on to the practice field. This would have been a normal experience, except her face and eyes had an unfocused and vacant quality as she stumbled on to the field like a drunken woman. Again not something that would really grab much attention, if you discounted the massive amount of blood freely flowing from a gaping wound on her throat.

1 of the archery club members ran to Kyoko to see if he could help, it was the last thing he ever did as a living human. When he got to her, she lunged and sank her teeth in to his cheek. His scream stunned the rest of the club.

"Everybody, fall back!" Mamoru's command snapped everybody out of their shock and they all ran toward the bleachers.

In the time it had taken for the members of the archery and kendo clubs to rally around Mamoru, the beast that had once been Kyoko Hayashi had brought the screaming club member to the ground, stopping his scream with a lunge to his throat.

"Attention all students and teachers! At the present time, there is a violent struggle occurring on the premises. Students, stay with your teachers and follow their instructions!" The principles voice came over the intercom announcing the situation to the whole school. "I repeat at the present time," in the background of the announcement, a crash was heard, "there is a violent struggle occurring on the premises..." a scream interrupted the message, "Ah! Help me! Stop! Help! Ah! Ow, that hurts! Help! I'm going to die!" one last scream came over the intercom, before only the wet sound of chewing remained.

Mamoru instantly recognized that panic that was about to engulf the school. Looking over toward his former club member, he bowed his head and said a small prayer in his head. Snapping his head up, he made a decision. A decision that would effect the lives of all those with him. Grabbing his yumi from off the bench, he pulled an arrow from the yazutsu attached to his waist, notched the arrow and proceeded to draw the string all the way back to his shoulder. He took aim and released. The arrow flew fast and true, nailing the beast eating one of his club members threw the top of the head. The body jerked, then lay still of the corpse of the student she had been previously eating.

Everybody looked at Mamoru, as he slowly lowered his yumi. "Kendo club at the front, archery club as support." The whole group just stared at him, most of them still in shock.

"We all heard the principle. The rest of the student body is going to freakout and panic. If you listen, you can hear them screaming in the school and on the other fields now. I don't know what's really going on, but the true Kyoko-sensei would never have done that," he pointed his yumi toward the 2 corpses, only for the dead student to start crawling toward them.

They all stared at corpse that had once been Daichi Aki, 4th seat of the club, crawl toward them with out a care toward the dead weight of Kyoko Hayashi's body sitting on his back. Vice-captain Katsumi, with bokken in hand, walked toward Aki. He stopped a foot in front of the former 4th seat, as the corpse grabbed his his foot, he drew his arm back and swung. The solid thunk of the bokken hitting Aki's head at full speed was punctuated by his head jerking and falling limp on the ground.

"You all heard captain Kiyoshi." the 5'10'' 17 year old with black hair and a bad boy punk look spoke, "Kendo club at the front." He turned to Mamoru, "What's the plan captain?"

Mamoru nodded in thanks. "The plan is simple. First, does any body have a phone on them?" He looked at each of the other 15 people with him, receiving a no from all of them. "Then our first order of business is to find a phone. We need to see if whatever this thing is is a city wide thing or just around the school. After that, we all need to see if our families are alright. Everybody grab an additional yazutsu. Misuzu, Toshimi, I need you to carry two yazutsu. We might need more arrows, and we can't carry all of them by our selves." His girlfriend and her friend just stared at him. He walked to his girlfriend, "Toshimi please, I swear to you, we are going to be just fine. We'll get a hold of your mom and be just fine." She nodded, as she and Misuzu ran over to the supply shed to do as he'd asked. He turned to the rest of the group, screams of students dieing in the background, "Anybody have a phone in their locker?"

His 10th seat, Hanako Gina, the 5', 15 year old girl with short black hair green eyes, a cup breasts and a cute little girl look, raised her hand. "I've got one, but my locker is on the other side of the school at the second entrance."

"It's to far. The nearest entrance on the south side of the academy is much closer. I know the office at the south side has a phone. So the plan is to call the police, followed by our families then go home. Lets move people!" They started towards the school.

10 feet from the practice field entrance, they encountered their first true test. 1 of the P.E. classes had been in the middle of a game of soccer, and some of those had fallen near the archery clubs practice field. What should have been a quick jog to the office, was now a battle field. Living dead littered the ground and stumbled along from the academies many buildings to the practice fields.

"Kendo club, fall back. Archers, draw." The finality in the order had everybody react instantly. The 4 kendo club members slipped between them, as the archers all drew and notched arrows. "Aim for the forehead," Mamoru was interrupted by his vice-captain, Fumiko Emi, 15, 5'4'' with a yamato nadeshiko look, "Are you sure captain? I mean I know it looks like a zombie movie, but are you sure it will be like in the movies captain?"

He turned to her, "It worked on both Aki and Kyoko-sensei." She nodded. "Like I said, aim for the forehead." The archers all did as they were told, "Loose!" The shuffling corpses all turned to the loud sound, only for an arrow to drop them to the ground. 8 of the 40 zombies currently on the school grounds dropped to the ground, drawing the attention of several more.

"Three steps back, and draw again." He ordered while doing the same himself. They were quick to follow his orders, while drawing their own arrows. "Aim. Loose!" Again a flight of arrows struck. All 9 finding their marks. This time, the loud order grabbed the attention of the remaining zombies. The 23 original zombies were joined by more from the fields.

"Ten feet back, then draw." All but 1 person was quick to follow his orders. A kendo club member had a look of horror on his face. He ignored everybody else, as he moved toward 1 of the female zombies that went down on the 2nd volley. Making zero noise, he walked right past the zombies and fell to his knees next to the dead girl. He put his bokken down next to him as he caressed her cold face. "Haruki!" His scream drowned out any order Mamoru or Katsumi might have been about to issue.

What happened next, was to quick for anybody to stop. The zombies who had been moving towards the larger group, stopped dead before turning and falling on the unfortunate grieving kendo club member. In what seemed like seconds, a human being was torn apart. The group could only stare in stunned horror. In about a minute, the zombies were done. They all stumbled after the sounds of screaming coming from the main school building, leaving the stunned silent group behind.

They all just stared after the ravenous group, all except vice-captain Katsumi. He couldn't tear his eyes off the blood stained scraps of clothing and bones. The zombies had eaten everything else.

A hand landing on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts. He snapped his head to the left, eyes locking with Mamoru.

"I know how it feels. I just lost Aki, and had to put down Kyoko-sensei. I know how it feels, but we can't grieve for them right now. We have to keep it together for the sake of everybody else right now. When we get to some place safe, we'll both cry for those lost." Katsumi nodded, "Yeah. I understand. I just... wish grieving wasn't necessary."

"I know." Mamoru nodded as he gestured for everybody to gather in to a huddle to make the least amount of noise.

"I've just learned something important." All 14 people looked at him. "We now know that they are attracted to sound, almost to the exclusion of all else. They didn't even look twice at poor Haru, till he screamed. They focused everything they had on him after he screamed. It means if we stay quiet, we'll be fine." The group looked relieved at the information.

"Lets restock out of the supply shed, then get out of here." They snapped to it quick as they could. The restock took less then 15 minutes.

"Alright, same plan. Only this time, we move silent."

The 3 remaining kendo members drew bokken from belts and took the lead. The field and school grounds were almost empty this time, as they rushed toward the south entrance of the school. They stayed as far from the zombies as they could, sometimes 20 feet and sometimes 5 feet. The zombies never reacted to them, seeming to almost not be able to see them.

The school had gone almost dead quiet by this point, so when the sound of water rushing of the school roof came from the east, it sounded like a cannon. The zombies outside of the school, in their stumbling gait, moved as quickly as they could to the sound. The group looked at each other in relief. They might not have to put down anymore of their fellow students. It took them another 10 minutes to reach the southern entrance at their safe speed. Their relief lasted all the way till they opened the door. Inside the entrance, they made an incredibly gruesome discovery.

Blood decorated almost every surface, like some kind of demented paintball fight. Zombies feasted on the remains of students, body parts scattered over the locker room. The smell of death hung over the room like a heavy fog. The students must have been trying to get their stuff, when they were fallen upon by a group of the undead. Their was no evidence to suggest that anybody had survived.

A feminine scream rang out faintly from 1 of the upper levels. Mamoru waved his group back outside of the school. With no hesitation, they almost ran out of the school. Once back on to the practice field, Most of the group threw up. Mamoru dropped to his knees, a puddle of vomit not far from him and Toshimi sobbing in to his shoulder. The entire group spent the next 2 hours taking comfort from each other.

As afternoon neared it's end, they all heard a shout of 'Run'. As they looked at each other, wondering if they had all heard it. Within minutes, the sound of 1 of the travel buses starting up on the north side caused them all to hop to their feet.

"Lets move people!" Mamoru's voice spurred them all in to action. They sprinted for the north side of Fujimi Academy, only to see the bus break through the gate and continue toward Tokonosu City proper.


	2. Chapter 2

The group stared in horror as the bus drove off. 10th Seat Gina fell to her knees, and started to quietly sob. Despair started to settle in, until Mamoru started to speak in a low whisper, "We need to follow that bus. If we want to have any chance of surviving this, we need to move."

They all started to pull themselves together, as Gina whipped her eyes on her sleeve and stood up. Being as quiet as they possibly could, they started to move toward the destroyed gate. Taking their original formation of kendo up front with kyudo as backup, they moved. The 3 kendo club members dropped 5 more zombies before they left the yard. The road offered almost nothing in the way of shelter for the group, but was remarkably clear of the undead. Mamoru pointed toward the road, and mimed running to them. They nodded and set out at a jogging pace. They couldn't afford to run full out, as the threat level was unknown. More fighting could, and probably would be up.

For almost a half-hour, they jogged down the road. The black smoke rising out of the distant buildings, lent itself well to the also distant screams of the dying to create a horrifying atmosphere. They moved with purpose as they made to trek. 10 minutes in to their trek from the school, the sun set. Not wanting his people to get hurt, no one having a flash light or a phone, Mamoru slowed the group to a fast walk. They spotted a convenience store, before Mamoru called a halt.

The wall behind the register was splattered with blood, but the body wasn't in place. "Kendo club," Mamoru's low voice rang out, "search the store. A kyudo club member will have your back, but I didn't see any blood by the entrance so I think we have at least 2 in here with us. Go row by row, and be careful."

The kendo club members nodded and moved out, 3 kyudo club members following with arrows already drawn. "Anyone worked in a convenience store before?" They all shook their heads in the negative. "Then lets see if we can find the button to lock the doors together shall we?" They got to work immediately. The stores music almost drowned out the sound of 3 solid thuds towards the back of the store.

Maiko Etsuko, the 15 year old girl with shoulder length pony-tailed brown hair, blue eyes and sharp face, finally found it. She pressed it and 2 club members pressed the doors together to ensure they locked right as the six members sent to make sure the store was clear came back.

Emi spoke out, "Captain, I think we should turn the lights out."

The whole group turned in confusion, "Why?" he couldn't help but ask, "Well, we know that the city is in a bad way right?" The group nodded, "Think of how quickly this store might get hit by looters and crazy people."

Mamoru put his hand to his chin in thought, "Do you know where the light switches are?"

She nodded and pointed them out, "Yeah, right here next to the door locks." "Then do it. And good idea." She smiled at the compliment.

"Alright guys, none of us has had anything to eat since lunch." Mamoru's statement punctuated by most of the groups stomachs choosing now to grumble.

"I don't know if this will get better, I can't promise it will, but we all need to eat." He walked to one of the isles with energy bars and grabbed one with a high protein count, the groups eyes on him with rapt attention, "If it does get better, I'll pay for every bodies food. For now, eat up and drink up."

He brought a couple of food bars and water bottles to Toshimi and Misuzu sitting behind the coffee bar near the door.

Sitting down next to her, he put his arm around her shoulder with her almost automatically leaning in to his body. She started to shake as her pent up emotions started to pour out, quietly sobbing in to his shoulder. He just held her and gently rocked her, letting her get it all out.

She wasn't the only one whose emotions went wild. Through out the store, 9 of the survivors wept quietly. Knowing they were among the few to escape from the school. It was more than reasonable to assume that most of their friends and all of their teachers, people that in some cases they had known for years, were all dead.

For 2 hours, the store was mostly quiet, sobs coming every now and then as people started to come to grips with what had happened in a single afternoon. After the 2 hours, Mamoru pulled his arm from around his now sleeping girlfriend and gently set her down.

He motioned Emi and Katsumi to follow him.

Once at the back of the store, near the blood stained floor with drag marks denoting the 3 undead slain earlier, he quietly spoke, "We all need sleep after this long ass day," rubbing his tired eyes before continuing, "but we can't afford to remain unguarded. So here's what we're going to do. We'll break the night down in to shifts. First shift will be Gina, myself and the American exchange student of yours, Monroe or something. Second shift will be Katsumi, Eri and Daisuke. And third shift, before waking the rest of us, will be Emi, Hideo and Amaya. This will give us a command person, 1 melee fighter and 2 archers for each shift. We'll hold a meeting tomorrow for a plan on what to do next. After all, our chances of catching up to whoever was in that bus today are slim." The 2 vice-captains nodded, and set out to let the night watchers know what was up.

For the next few hours, the first shift stayed out of sight from the windows behind the counter while keeping an eye on the door. Several of the undead stumbled passed the door, but kept walking as the students made no noises. In the distance, screams and booms could still be faintly heard. They stayed down behind the counter, except when one of them had to use the restroom. At about 1 in the morning, they got the next shift up to take their turn on watch. Mamoru laid down next to his girlfriend, and was out in moments.

The rest of the night passed by without incident and the third shift woke everybody up at 7 in the morning. They stayed low and quiet as they geared up. "Alright everybody," Mamoru spoke up, "we need as many supplies as we can carry. We're lucky we found a place with a couple backpacks and a duffel bag. Stuff as many water, energy drinks and sodas in to it as you can. The backpacks are getting stuffed with as much food as they can. Avoid the weight loss things. Anything canned or dried out gets taken with us."

They did as they were told, seeing that it was a good plan. It didn't take long for the bags to be filled, taking about 3 quarters of the food and all of the bottles of water. Once done, they all had some of the food still in the store and they each had a juice.

Once they had eaten, Fumio Daisuke, a 17 year old member of the kyudo club standing at 5'9'' with cropped cut black hair, dark eyes and a body builder look to him, put the strap of the duffel bag over his right shoulder and his bow on the left. The backpacks were being worn by a couple of the kyudo club members as they all gathered by the door. The button to unlock the doors was pushed and they opened up with a ding.

The way was clear, no walkers in sight. They filed out and made their way down the road heading toward the bridges. None of the group had any family living on this side of the river, so they knew they needed to get over the river to reach their families.

The going was slow, not because of a large number of the undead but because of the number of unmanned vehicles blocking up the road. At one point, they even found the remains of a bus that had crashed in the entrance to a tunnel that would have been a short cut to the bridges. Marching the long way, they were able to see some horrifying scenes. In some of the cars, which no one present knew how to drive, were bloody car seats along with blood covered toys for both genders. To see some of these things, was worse than actually putting down the undead.

The members of the kendo club on point spotted a small health clinic with a veterinarian's office under the same name. The single story complex that was once a plain white, was stained with blood. Bloody hand prints and smears marked the walls, windows and the doors for both businesses. Not many bodies or undead around though.

Bloody footprints led down the road, following the path the group actually had to follow. Mamoru decided they needed to clear out the clinic for medications and to let the way further ahead clear up a bit. They couldn't really see in to the windows and doors, and they weren't making enough noise for the undead still in the yard to be attracted to them yet, so he directed 2 other members of the kyudo club to draw and fire on the undead near the door while he took out those on the far side of the building.

Gina and Emi both launched arrows, dropping 2 zombies before redrawing and dropping an additional 2. During that time, Mamoru himself had dropped 2. He still had his string drawn, waiting to see if any others would come around the corner. When another did, it only took a couple steps before dropping.

"Gina, Emi, collect your arrows and make sure their still functional. Katsumi will accompany me to retrieve mine. No body goes in to the clinic till we get back. Every body else keeps a look out. There is potentially a large group of those things in there and we're not losing anyone. If we have to sacrifice potential medicine to keep our group safe, then it's not even a contest." The group looked inspired by his speech, already knowing that he was a good leader in regular times but to see that he was a good leader in a crisis was helping them to keep their morale up.

Gina and Emi moved over to remove their arrows from the corpses as Mamoru and Katsumi went toward the far side of the building to do the same. The rest of the group stayed on guard from outside the property of the clinic. As Gina was inspecting her second arrow, she looked up at a noise, "Ah!" she screamed and jumped back, tripping to the ground, as a blood stained face with out a lower jaw was right in the door. Her scream attracted its attention and it started to push the door open. This movement caused the other zombies in the reception area to move towards the door as well. Their moans increasing in level as they got closer to their target.

The lead zombie started to reach for the scared stiff girl on the ground, before a bokken blade flew over her head. The wooden blade smashed in to the zombies face, crushing its head in, before the 16 year old Gorou Hideo kicked the corpse in to another zombie, bringing the beast to the ground. The 5'7'' rather standard looking Japanese boy pinned the former business man to the ground and swung his blade across the zombies face, killing it for good. After he finished the beast off, he hopped back and dropped in to a crouch allowing the kyudo members to drop the last 4 undead coming out of the clinic.

Hideo stepped up to Gina and held his hand out to help her off the ground. She slammed in to him, hugging him as tight as she could all the while thanking him tearfully. Hideo put his hand on her back, assuring her she was safe now. He looked up at the rest of the group, Katsumi and Mamoru having rejoined the group, and got smiles and head nodding for saving Gina.

"Alright everybody," Mamoru's voice got every ones attention, "now that we've cleared out the lobby, we'll go in. Katsumi and Hideo will take the lead, followed by my self and Emi. Everyone else will keep guard here out side the building. After we get some pain killers, bandages and other assorted medications, we'll find some place to bed down for the night before we continue across the river."

At this point, Toshimi couldn't keep her silence, "Does it always have to be you?" Her saddened words drew the groups attention.

Mamoru walked up to her and drew her to his chest, his arms circling tight around her. "Someone else might get it wrong. You know I love you, but this is something I have to do to make sure you and everybody else with us safe. If I knew that you would be safe if we just went on our way, I'd be aiming us straight for some isolated island and we'd just wait it out. But I want us to be healthy as well and that takes more than just food and water. So I'm taking us in to that clinic for the things I know we'll need later."

He turned to look at everybody else, Toshimi still wrapped up in his arms, "I don't think this is going to get better guys. These things, that were once people, aren't going to be cured. After all, it's kind of hard to cure death. Some of the wounds on their bodies, nobody could survive that kind of thing. Right now, our goals are to get some of the medication in this clinic followed by finding some place to bed down for the night." He let go of Toshimi, leaning down to kiss her, before he took a couple of steps back.

Katsumi spoke up at this point, having noticed a 3 story apartment building a couple block away, "Captain, we could see about clearing the top story of that apartment complex a few streets over."

The group looked over at the building, "That sounds like a good idea vice-captain. After we get the medications we'll go check it out. Before we move out, does anybody need some meds to keep them alive?" Everybody in the group shook their heads, "Then let's move people."

The four people moved in to the building, Katsumi leading. The archers following the kendo club members to make sure they didn't get overwhelmed by any remaining undead in the building.

The building opened up when they stepped in to the lobby. 2 hallways branched off from the lobby, both leading toward the rear of the clinic. With slow careful steps, the 4 person group split in to 2 groups. The smell of blood was almost overwhelming to them, but they kept their composure. It wasn't a large clinic, but safely moving through each room and making sure they were clear of the undead was slow work. Mamoru and Hideo took out 3 before they reached the last room.

Hideo turned to Mamoru, "Captain, do you know which medications will be useful to us?"

Mamoru went completely still, before smacking himself on the forehead. "Shit. I know that were going to need pain killers, so look for anything with the names acetaminophen, oxycodone, vicodin or loratab. I know those are prescription pain killers, and any name brand product. Other than that, penicillin is the only antibiotic that I know the name of." Hideo nodded and they started to search each room. They found a lot of Tylenol and a few bottles of penicillin with a few needles that were still clean.

They were making their way out of the clinic, checking each room as they went, finding basic medical equipment like bandages, antiseptic wipes and antibiotic ointment tubes. It all went in to some plastic bags as they went. They got back to the lobby, where Katsumi and Emi where waiting. They also had a few bags of basic supplies. They found none of the strong pain killers, but the antibiotics they found were worth their weight in gold.

Outside, they found everybody safe, with several new corpses littering the yard.

"Alright people," Mamoru spoke up, "our plan is to go for that apartment building several streets over." He pointed to the building in question. "We're going to try and take the 2nd floor. It gives an out in both directions, up or down. We'll need to see if any of them are open, if none of them are, we'll need to sleep in the hallway under the stars. Now lets go."

The way was clear, nothing moving around on the streets. They made their way as quickly as they could, keeping their eyes on every alleyway. They didn't see anything, human or otherwise, as they made their way over to the apartments.

Stopping by the first door of the building, they crouched down as Mamoru laid out the plan.

"We'll check each floor, door by door. This way we'll know if any apartments are available for us to take over. We know that there are 6 doors on each floor, so they have to be multiple rooms. We'll do this the same way that we cleared the store, 1 member of each team will check the apartments. Stagger the groups, group 1 will check the first apartment then the 5th and so on. I'll stay hear with the rest to keep an eye out. Lets move people."

The groups rushed to follow his orders. The first floor ended up with no luck. Each door was locked, and no answer when they knocked. Group 3 carefully made their way to floor 2, before checking the first door and finding it locked.

Group 1 found the first open door. Katsumi, Emi following 3 feet behind him, Carefully made his way in to the apartment. No shoes by the door was a good sign, it meant the owners were probably out. Not finding blood all over the place was another really good

sign.

After checking the three room apartment, they found it was clear. So checking the rest of the apartments, they only found one more open on the third floor. They decided not to go in, blood all over the entrance way made the decision for them. So they locked the door and closed it.

The searching groups called out to the rest of the group, and everybody rushed to the second floor.

The fifteen person group was a tight squeeze in the living room of the apartment, while Mamoru started to plan out what they would do the next day.

"Alright, it's close to eighteen hundred now. So we'll cook some food and bed down here for the night."

The members of the group carrying the food went for the kitchen, Katsumi spoke up before they could start taking things out of the bags, "Lets check if the people who live here left any food behind."

Gina in the lead nodded, "Lets check the freezer and the fridge first." The kitchen group started to check each cupboard. They found more food then they brought from the convenience store. A big pot of stew was made, with any canned vegetables and meats they could find in the freezer.

Within a couple of hours, they'd eaten and everybody had started to relax. Then Daisuke, the tough looking 17 year old, turned on the TV.

The news was playing, and they were covering the story on the bridge.

"The so called 'killing pandemic'," the female reporter quoted, "that's been occurring all over the world continues to spread with unprecedented speed. The number of patients of this 'killing pandemic' in our country has already reached over 2 million. Because of its powerful infectiousness and paralyzed system, it's speculated that the number could reach 10 million in a day or 2. And centers for decease control are stymied." The female reporter was cut off as Mamoru turned the TV off.

"Now that we've eaten, it's eight P.M. now so we'll bed down for the night. We'll take the same watch shifts as last night. Tomorrow at sunrise, we'll try to get over the bridge. Most of us have family on the other side and we all want to see our families safe."

The group all nodded and most tried to get to sleep. The night passed by quickly. They heard a little bit of movement in the surrounding apartments, but didn't investigate.

At sunrise, they woke up the rest of the group and headed out. The first few hours passed quickly, only seeing movement far in the distance.

By noon, the group was only a couple miles from the bridges, having only put down a few of the undead. The noise from last night almost completely gone, though they could still car engines in the distance. As they made their way further along the road, they started to become paranoid. They hadn't seen a zombie for over an hour, even though the cars where more packed the closer they got to the bridge.

Hitting the middle bridge, they moved towards the other side. The middle of the bridge was a blood bath. Fallen police and civilians littered the killing ground. All those laying on the ground, had large pools under them and the massive wounds to their heads and none of them moving marking them as actual corpses. The smell was overwhelming. A mix of sickly sweet and rotting dung. Every body in the group vomited multiple times before they crossed the rest of the way. Because none of them could hold their stomachs in, they didn't collect any of the resources left over from those that no longer needed them.

After they had crossed the bridge, they took some time to regroup. The roar of an engine drew their attention down the river bank, seeing a dark green shape fly over the bank.

"Alright guys, that vehicle is almost a mile away. Do we want to try and get to them? Or should we keep going towards our families?" Mamoru asked his group. They thought about it, before Toshimi spoke up, "I think we should stay separate from any other group right now. We are an armed group of teenagers, if they're adults they'll want to take control. The adults did nothing to help us survive. Kyoko-Sensei actually killed one of us and the rest were no shows. I think we should find our parents before doing anything else." The rest of the group looked at each other, before turning to their captain and nodding.

He nodded, "Alright then. Who's parents are closest to the river?"

Katsumi raised his hand, "My parents should be only a couple of blocks away from here."

Mamoru nodded, then addressed his group. "Then first we'll go to Vice-captain Katsumi's home. We'll hope for the best, but every body, prepare for the worst. With how few living people we've seen today alone, the chances of us finding our families alive is miniscule. But the best thing we can do, is to keep hope alive. So I still believe we will find our parents, those who live in the city. After that, we'll find some place to whole up till it becomes safe. I can't promise that we'll find our parents alive, but I promise to do everything I can to make sure we all survive this."

The whole group felt re-energized from his speech, as they started to pack up. They didn't even notice when the dark green vehicle way down the river drove off.


	3. Chapter 3

So everybody knows, I'm sorry for letting this story sit idle as long as I have. Sometimes your muse just leaves you hanging and you can't add anymore to a single page. I know I've let down some of those who have read my story. I also want everybody reading this to know that after this point, a large amount of the interactions are going to change. Anyway, I don't own High School of the Dead and never will, mores the pity.

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They found Katsumi's house within a half hour, dealing with the fall out of what they found was another matter entirely. They knew when they walked in to the yard, saw the door smashed in and barely hanging from the hinges, that they probably weren't going to like what they found in side. Katsumi, as though in a trance, walked in to the entry way of his house and found something horrifying. A woman's left wrist and hand, with obvious teeth marks, was lying palm up in a small pool of dried blood. He slowly crouched down and picked it up, he flipped it over and screamed. His mother's wedding ring, with a sapphire instead of a diamond, glinted in the light.

His knees hit the ground as he cried, hugging what was probably all that was left of his mother to his chest. The noise of something moving further in the house caught the attention of everybody else. Gorou and Benjamin Quickly moved passed their captain and drew their bokken. A small business man holding a large kitchen knife walked around the corner, he held the knife that was smeared with blood out blade first.

He spoke up when he saw the 2 large boys holding bokken point first at him, "Look, I can't get to my house, and the door was already smashed inward. I don't know what happened here, I don't think I want to, but I imagine one of you lived here?" He waited a bit to see if anybody would answer before continuing, "The people who lived here left a message on the fridge," at this Katsumi's still sobbing eyes locked on to the man, "but it wasn't good. I just came here looking for food, and I saw the message. All it said is 'We're so sorry Katsumi'. That's it. Once I saw that, I decided I didn't want scavenging from a dead families home on my conscious. So, if you'll let me by, I'll just be on my way." He moved to go passed the group, they made no hostile moves so once passed the main group, he ran on his way.

Misuzu walked up to Katsumi, and hugged him as his sobs got louder. They subsided after a while, and he stood up. He removed the ring from his mother's hand, pocketed it and moved toward the rest of the house. He walked to his room first, to get a change of clothes and any assorted things he might need. He found dried blood covering some of his shelves and the closet door. He knocked on the door to his closet, but heard nothing from inside it. He opened it and took out some sturdy clothes, but couldn't find his favorite hoody. He quickly changed and left his room. He walked in to the kitchen, and saw the bloody note on the fridge. Deciding not to check the cabinets, he moved to his parents room and opened the door. The rest of the group, having decided that it would be respectful to leave Katsumi to check the house on his own, heard him scream again in horror and rushed to see if he was okay. What they found was worse then just his mother's disembodied hand. What could only be Katsumi's mother sat at the foot of a large bed. Her body completely still, a large blood covered hoody on her upper body, and a kitchen knife stuck half way through the right side of her head. Her arm trapped between the bed and the rest of her body indicated it was self inflicted.

Mamoru took command and ordered everybody out, "Everybody but Katsumi, out now!" Everybody else moved quickly out to the front yard, he turned back to Katsumi, " What she did, had to have taken the most courage I've ever seen in my life. We'll wait out in the yard for you Katsumi. Take your time." With that he left Katsumi to grieve for his mother and presumably his father.

They waited for a couple hours, the sounds of sobbing heard easily enough. It even attracted a few zombies that they put down. At the end of the 2 hours, Katsumi emerged from his house. His eyes were red-rimmed from crying, but he was steady. He moved over to Mamoru, his voice hoarse as he answered the unasked question, "I'm good to go captain." Mamoru nodded and they left the place that used to be Katsumi's home but was now the tomb of his mother behind.

For an hour, the group made their way inward to the residential sector of Tokonosu City. They found little in the way of living or dead to block their paths. They passed many houses on their way through the back streets, many with the unnatural groaning of the undead from the yards. They came upon a motorcycle shop around noon, and decided to get their bearings.

They stepped in to the unlocked doors and checked the store for any of the undead. Coming up empty, of living or undead, they regrouped in the middle of the store to plan out their route for finding their families.

"Alright," Mamoru spoke up, "we all know that we need to find our families. We know what happened to Katsumi's parents, but I hope that's the exception rather than the norm. Seeing we're at the corner of 8th and 1500, who lives the closest to this shop?"

A 17 year old girl named Akiko Ai spoke up then, "Well, I live only a few blocks away on 9th and 2100, so I think I'm the closest."

After her, Misuzu spoke up, "As you know, Toshimi and I live on the far side of the residential sector. On the west side. We'd like to go over there first, but on foot it would take at least a couple hours normally, with everything currently going on, it might take all day." Her words had a little bit of an ominous air about them.

Etsuko Maiko spoke up afterwards, with tears in her eyes. "My parents are off in Okinawa, so I doubt I'll ever find out if they are safe or not." She cried quietly as a couple of the other female members of the kyudo club hugged her.

The only foreign student spoke up then, "Obviously, we're not going to find my parents or little sisters here in Japan. After all, I'm a foreign exchange student."

The group nodded, accepting the statement for the fact that it was.

The last member of the kendo club spoke up then, "I was staying with my grand-parents in the city as my grand-mother needs to have routine blood transfusions. Even if she did get the blood she needed, that stuff has to be kept at a specific temperature, and I don't think she'll be able to get the next one. Plus they're in their seventies, I doubt they even made it to a safe place. And my parents live in the country at our family house, so no chance of actually getting to them in anything resembling a reasonable time."

Gina, Arisu Amaya and Emi all said that their families lived out of the city. They all lived in the suburbs, while commuting to school.

Fumio Daisuke said he lives near the Takagi family, so should be safe for a few days. Both Akihiko Akira and Hoshi Eri said they lived in the same area as the Takagi's.

Mamoru spoke up then, "My own parents are divorced, and my father left for America. While my mother became a drunk and she often sleeps at the house of what ever guy she's seeing at the time. I didn't know where she was this morning, and the chances of her being home right now are microscopic." He shook his head and sighed, "If we see her, she will probably be one of the undead."

He looked around the store for a bit, before he turned back to the group.

Mamoru then laid out the plan, "Here's how we're going to do this. We'll check Ai's house first. Afterwards, depending on time, we'll swoop back to the Takagi family estate. We'll have to find a couple vehicles by that point, but having multiple parents with drivers license will make that easier to do."

The group nodded at that, the plan being sound.

"But first, let's see if we can't find some better clothing for the women at least. I've been to a couple of the motorcycle shops in town, and they have all had riding clothes. They might even have some riding armor. So everybody, fan out and try to find some clothing that will fit you." Mamoru gave a last order to the group.

Looking at some of the clothing options available, Toshimi found a green set of cycling pants that fit her. She found an unoccupied area to remove her school skirt, quickly pulling the pants up. She looked at her shoes, once nice white school issued ones, they were scuffed and had blood coating them. She decided to look around for more fitting footwear. Finding a pair of boots in her size, she quickly laced them up. Then went back to her boyfriend.

By the time she came back to him, Mamoru had already changed out of his competition outfit. He was now wearing a dark blue riding outfit. His competition outfit folded neatly nearby. His hakama belt holding his yazutsu on his new gear. He smiled and gave his girlfriend a hug and kiss. They stayed that way for a while. The horror of what they had seen at Katsumi's house still fresh in their minds.

They moved to the rest of the group, checking to see if everybody was freshly clothed. Seeing that no body had any of the hard plastic armor, Mamoru came to the conclusion that this place probably didn't have much in the way of dirt bike gear. They left after everybody was accounted for. The headed out towards Ai's house, hoping that they didn't see a seen like the one at Katsumi's place. The trek was quiet, something having drawn all the undead away from where they currently were. They got there quickly. The door was still in place, and having left her keys at the school when they'd made their escape, Ai knocked on the door.

After waiting what felt like forever, but was only a few minutes, she knocked again. They heard nothing from inside the house. She tried the door, and found it locked. She went to one of the windows and peeked inside.

She saw no movement or any evidence that anything had occurred in her home. She looked to the rest of the group with tears in her eyes, "Nobodies home. I don't know when they left or if they are coming back." She looked at Katsumi and sympathized with the pain he must have been feeling, but she felt that he at least had some closure. The not knowing if anything had befallen her parents she knew would eat her up inside.

"Alright," Mamoru spoke up, "we've done all we can here. Let's stick to the plan and move to the Takagi estate." They all nodded, and moved away from the house. Then, in the distance, they heard gunshots go off. They froze, as they heard the tell tale signs of the undead dinner bell.

Mamoru quickly turned to Ai, "Is there anyplace large enough to hold our group around here?" She nodded and they ran as they followed her as she led them to a shrine nearby.

Once inside, she lead them to the main room of the place.

"I've never figured out," she spoke up, "if these swords are real." With that she leaned over and picked up two old looking katana from their place of honor. She turned and handed them to Katsumi and Gorou respectively as the best swordsmen here. The two men took them gladly.

Mamoru looked out, the afternoon sun starting to dip toward the horizon. As everybody rested, catching their breath from the run, he spoke up. "Everybody, get comfortable." They gave him confused looks at this, "I think we need to rest here for tonight. We'll set out early tomorrow, but with as late as it is, it would be folly for us to got out tonight."

Katsumi got up and walked over to the door and looked out as well. He nodded to the group leader and walked back over to the rest of the group.

After a few minutes, Mamoru closed the large door and walked over to his girlfriend. The group ate quietly as everybody decompressed. Katsumi started to silently cry again, his tears racking down his face. They stayed like that for a few hours, getting some food and water in to their systems. Just before the days light really started to fade out, they heard the sound of a running motor. Ai spoke up, "That sounds like it's coming from the park nearby," her voice was interrupted by a shotgun blast.

Everybody readied their weapons, arrows knocked and swords drawn.

They heard running toward the door, before it was thrown open.

Both groups were brought up short. "Captain!?" Katsumi spoke up.

Saeko Busujima was already stunned from her freeze up in the park, yet to see a few members from her own kendo club in an out of the way temple, was absolutely astonishing. Takashi Komuro was equally stunned to see other survivors from their school in a temple this close to the Takagi estate.

Mamoru spoke then, "Everybody lower your weapons." They all followed the order, their weapons being sheathed and arrows returned to quivers, as he turned to the other two survivors.

"It's really good to see other survivors from Fujimi Academy. Captain Busujima, and friend, you're welcome to share our food and drink while we continue the discussion of our plans tomorrow." Saeko and Takashi followed him as he led them to the food and water. They shared stories of what had been happening to both groups as the two newcomers ate and drank. Takashi was shocked to find out they had left the group right outside the school.

Katsumi stepped forward at that point, "Captain," Saeko looked at him, "I believe this would be better off in your hands." after saying that, he kneeled and presented one of the katana found at the shrine to her.

Saeko, after looking at the sheathed blade in front of her, finally spoke, "Katsumi, I'm so sorry that you had to see such a scene in your own home. I, however, can't take that sword. I think you would be better off with it at this point in time." He swallowed hard, before she continued, "So what is you plan from now on Captain Kiyoshi?"

Mamoru looked at her, "Well, we are planning to push to the Takagi estate tomorrow. We'll see if we can find Akira, Daisuke and Eri's parents at their homes, and move on from there. We'll see if we can't find a map in any of their homes, we'll see if the Takagi family has one. We need to know the status of the others families," he looked at his girlfriend and gave her a smile, "though the trek is going to be pretty hard, being on foot as none of us can drive."

Saeko and Takashi gave it some thought, before Takashi made an offer, "Well, we are also looking for our families. The rest of our group is actually with the Takagi's now, and we'll be meeting up with them tomorrow. So if you want to come with us, I think it would be safer for all of us."

Mamoru had his hand on his chin as he thought about the offer. It was more than reasonable. After all, there was safety in numbers. He looked at his group, seeing the hope in some of their eyes.

He made his decision on the hope of his group, "We'll go with you for now. After all, there is safety in numbers, and we have almost silent long range weapons. So I think we'll stick with you as long as the Takagi estate, see how it goes after that. So lets all get some sleep, except for those on watch. Katsumi, your group has first watch, mine will take second and Emi's will take third watch." They all nodded at the plan and most moved off to go to sleep.

Takashi was confused at what Mamoru was talking about, so voiced his confusion, "What do you mean watches?" Mamoru's head actually snapped to him in astonishment. "You mean, your group has spent 2 nights out in this hell, and you haven't posted a watch for your own safety?"

Takashi looked at Saeko, she shrugged and answered for her leader, "We've had some pretty secure locations to spend the nights so far. We also have some really good people with us." Mamoru looked skeptical at that, but he shrugged it off. "Well we're going to bed down, so get some sleep." With that, he walked back over to his girlfriend.

The night passed quietly, except for the occasional scream or gunshot. Saeko and Takashi were having a conversation in a free corner for a while, at the end of which she leaned over and hugged him. They ended up sleeping next to each other. At midnight, Katsumi shook Mamoru awake for his turn at watch. The night stayed quiet though. At 4am, he woke up the last shift and snuggled back up to his girlfriend. Shortly after dawn, Emi woke everybody up for the trek to the Takagi estate. They were ready to go within an hour.

Mamoru opened the doors, and they stepped out in to the light. After adjusting to the bright sunlight, he saw it was clear. "Takashi, you've been here before, where are we going?" Takashi looked around for a bit, before he spoke up, "We'll get to the street from the back, we should be able to get to Takagi's house in about 20 minutes by foot." The sound of groaning interrupted anything he might have said. Takashi gained a pissed off look on his face, "Why are they here? We didn't make any noise. God Damn it!"

The undead started to troop up the stairs and from around a couple of the far buildings. "I don't understand." Takashi took a couple steps back, standing next to Saeko. Mamoru stepped down the stair and spoke up, "Understanding isn't required. I'll take the shrine maiden." He pulled an arrow and drew it back, the other nine members of the kyudo club copying him, calling out targets from the landing. Mamoru took aim at the shambling corpse and he let fly.

Nine undead bodies dropped to the ground with a thud. The five left in the middle still shambling towards the group, when Saeko jumped over Mamoru's head and rushed in to the group. Within seconds, she had slain them all. She smirked at the rest of the group and spoke up, "I think we should get moving." Takashi cheered at seeing his actions of grabbing her breast hard and telling her he needed her had had the desired effect.

They got moving quickly, jogging down the back stairs and down the road. Takashi's timing was spot on as the large group came upon the Takagi estate's gate.

They walked up to the gate, the guards calling them to a halt as they guard walked up to the other side of the gate, "Who are you and what is such a large group of people doing coming up to the back gate of this estate?"

Takashi stepped up, "My name is Komuro Takashi, and I believe that you have the rest of my group on the premise." He smirked before continuing, "And one of them happened to be Saya Takagi."

The guard got right up to the gate, "Yeah, well I call bullshit! She has been here all night! You just got here you little punk! So what do you have to say about that!" The guard smirked, thinking he'd won the verbal spare.

Takashi's smirk got wider as he saw Saya walking quickly from behind the guard. Once she was close enough to be heard without yelling, she spoke up in a loud and commanding voice, "Open the gates!"

The guard jumped in surprise and quickly followed her order with a grumble.

Coming up to the large gates, the gates opening as they did so, they heard barking and a little girl with a dog came running up to them yelling, "Your back!" repeatedly. They all gave a smile to see a little girl still alive after all the terrible things they'd seen, and Takashi picked her up while hugging her saying, "Yeah Alice-chan, we're back."


End file.
